BioWare Stirs Up Trouble With A Gay Character In Dragon Age: Inquisition

Behold, the first “fully gay” male character that BioWare writer David Gaider has written for Dragon Age: Inquisition. And the latest cause of a controversial shitstorm that is the result of even going anywhere near the LGBT community.

“Dorian is gay–he is, in fact, the first fully gay character I’ve had the opportunity to write,” said Gaider on the BioWare blog. “It added an interesting dimension to his back story, considering he comes from a place where “perfection” is the face that every mage puts on and anything that smacks of deviancy is shameful and meant to be hidden. Dorian’s refusal to play along with that façade is seen as stubborn and pointless by his family, which has contributed to his status as a pariah.”

When questioned on whether he was happy with Dorian’s character, he replied, “I suppose this aspect of Dorian will make him controversial in some corners, but I was glad to include it. It made writing Dorian a very personal experience for me, and I’m hopeful that will make him seem like a fully realized character to fans in the end.”

Of course, immediately following this Gaider received some backlash from the community for calling Dorian ‘fully’ gay, as if to downplay bisexuality and so on. Here’s his tweeted response that followed:

@thesunnyamazon Many would say, “No, it’s not.” But fair enough–I did not intend to comment on bisexuality, and will leave it at that.

Now I’m all for political correctness, but this is BioWare we’re talking about, and he’s not exactly going, “OH HEY LOOK AT THIS FULL HOMO CHARACTER I CREATED!” He was sharing something on a blog about developers sharing things, and he felt very strongly about the character. Enough so that he wanted to share that.

Yes, I admit, he could have worded that sentence a lot better. But guys, this is BioWare we’re talking about. In a world where representation has become such a contentious topic, BioWare have long been creating characters the likes of Knights of the Old Republic character Juhani, Dragon Age character Anders, as well as Mass Effect 3 characters Traynor and Cortez, all of whom were openly gay. Then there were the bisexual characters of Dragon Age’s Leliana and Zevran, as well as Mass Effect’s Liara. BioWare may not be the perfect developer, and at times they may get it completely wrong but hey, at least they’re trying.

How many other studios can you say that about? And what was it everyone was criticising Ubisoft about again?

I agree there was a bit of an overreaction since BioWare does try, even though they fell off the wagon for a while especially with regards to the authenticity of their in-game relationships. That said, it speaks a little again of the importance of how you message things. However, “fully gay” for me is not nearly as bad as Ubisoft, because here as you said there is solid context and you can get what the writer means.

I think it’s a bit close to nitpicking to harp on it, but he should have said “gay” rather than fully gay. I didn’t see it as worthy of being a controversy, but there you go.

KoolAidMan

Why is this even a thing come on? Overreact much

Christo Botha

Haha fully gay I wonder what half gay is then? Maybe he meant that it’s the first character that’s openly gay or only gay not bi. Not sure but ye people overreacting once again.

http://www.lomag.co.za/ NeoN

Yip, my impression is that for once the character is not bi, but fully gay.

Kirsten Nicole Mcintyre

Oh wow, I feel bad for the guy. He is feeling all gay pride by representing and gets shot down!! Oh well I think they’re doing awesome stuff.

Wayne Jacobs

I feel this should be praised not shot down. This is actually very nice to see

http://www.lomag.co.za/ NeoN

This is so great to read, and makes to look forward to Inquisition all the more. BioWare have always had kickass characters, and with this, we’re going to get something different. Can’t wait!

Lauren Downing

He went full gay.

HisShadowX

Will he sexually harass all the male players like Anders and Zovran? And then we get nasty or bad points for saying no, again?

http://www.lomag.co.za/ NeoN

Hmmm… Didn’t know that was a thing. :/ I had Anders in my group and I don’t recall any harassment, leading to negative points.

HisShadowX

In the very beginning of the game your presented with three choices.

Two will start a gay relationship and give you good points
The final choice will be to reject the gay relationship with the big bad red points.